June 29, 2009

Waiting For Ricci

The Supreme Court should release its decision in the New Haven firefighters case today.

[UPDATE: Sotomayor is overturned 5-4, which preserves her cred as a reliable liberal:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has ruled that white
firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions
because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee
Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no
African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be
made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said
Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a
lawsuit from minorities.

The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially
limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for
decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination
against minorities.

"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on
race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and
qualified for promotions," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion
for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices
Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

This won't be that awkward for Sotomayor - she is a liberal judge with, at least on this case, mainstream liberal views. But it will be helpful to give the Senate Democrats an opportunity to defend her position.

First, Justice Ginsburg's dissent contains an interesting footnote
-- Footnote 10 -- suggesting that she and the other dissenters were
prepared to vacate and remand the case as recommended by the Obama
Administration's amicus brief.

10. The lower courts focused on respondents’ “intent” rather than onwhether respondents in fact had good cause to act. See
554 F. Supp. 2d 142, 157 (Conn. 2006). Ordinarily, a remand for fresh
consideration would be in order. But the Court has seen fit to preclude
further proceedings. I therefore explain why, if final adjudication by
this Court is indeed appropriate, New Haven should be the prevailing
party.

This would suggest that even the Court's dissenters
believed that the Second Circuit did not properly address the issues
raised by the New Haven firefighters, even if they would adopt a
standard that would make it difficult for the firefighters to prevail.

The non-PC Steve Sailer has fun with Emily Bazelon of Slate, who looks with disfavor on family ties and acquired expertise in mundane matters such as saving people's lives but presumably has a different view for important matters such as law school admissions. A snippet of his Big Finish:

I looked up
"Emily
Bazelon" on Wikipedia (accessed 16.59 ET, June 28
2009) and discovered that while she’s very bright, she’s not exactly the most self-aware person. When read in light of her biography, her Slate article about privileged white firemen becomes an amusing epitome of unthinking Gown v. Town prejudice.

More strikingly, the legal journalist’s grandfather David Bazelon was the most powerful judge in America not on the Supreme Court when he served from 1962-1978 as Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Indeed, considering his close relationship with the Svengali of the Warren Court,
William J. Brennan, quite possibly Bazelon was more powerful than several Supreme Court Justices.

Comments

And who's the NYT SCOTUS reporter married to a frequent civil rights litigator before that court, a relationship never disclosed to the paper's readers even as she takes her husband's positions over and again on these cases? The gal who famously spun the lie that the Roberts court was ignoring stare decisis?

Jane, would you actually have expected any of those four to vote any other way?

Once again, one need not have read a single case or statute to know exactly how eight of the nine justices would vote. And you can read all the cases and statutes in the world and not know what Kennedy is going to do.

I just did a PM piece on the Ricci case and the nomination--I think she can't hide behind the cover of pending case now and the panel can remind voters that one more vacancy in the majority under Obama and the racial bean counting will be back if she's confirmed.

The Court asked for a rehearing on the Hillary movie's ban where lower courts interpreted McCain Feingold to block the showing of the movie during the primaries as a campaign contribution.

The rehearing will take place on Sept 9 when many believe Sotomayer will be in place to rule on this...The Act is clearly unconstitutional--hold up her hearings, Reps if you can--OTOH it all depends once again on that blows with the wind Kenndy, doesn't it?

You mean common sense is actually alive in judicial decisions? 3 Cheers for the Robert's Court in arriving at a pragmatic non-pc decision that will take some of the wind out of the diversity-at-any-price thugs.

What did Lincoln say about fooling some of the people some of the time but not all the people all of the time. Well, I think that admonition is catching up with, as Clarice calls him, Ibama. Funny how Sanford just got kicked to touch by Jacko and now he is kicked to touch by Ricci and Bernie. Hell, Warhol has been deflated from 15 minutes to 5, just like the dollar.

Did y'all see Ibama's latest press conference? He used California as an example of how we will all benefit from the cap-n-tax. I almost fell out of my chair. California. The state that is bankrupt and issuing IOUs because they don't have any money.

CA? Really? Well, everything is a-ok here. We'll trade our carbon credits to prosperity, 2.0. With the profit, we can pay off our budget dificits and provide free health care to North America. Probably have enough left over to cover part of Brazil as well.

This specific issue has been around for a long time. Maybe someone else can recall the specifics, but around 30 years ago there was a case--I believe in Detroit, involving the police officers--where a test for employment or promotion was deemed "racist" because blacks failed it disproportionately. Some frustrated (presumably white) police officers anonymously put out a fake "non-racist" replacement test that was full of ebonics, and other such things. It was funny but arguably crossed a line. There was a huge uproar. I don't recall what happened, either with the case or whether the authors of the spoof test were tracked down and punished. Anyone (PD in Detroit?) recall this?

The dissent grants that petitioners' situation is "unfortunate" and that they "understandably attract this Court's sympathy." But "sympathy" is not what petitioners have a right to demand. What they have a right to demand is evenhanded enforcement of the law--of Title VII's prohibition against discrimination based on race. And that is what, until today's decision, has been denied them.

Well I can see both sides of the story. A test does have to be fair and relevant. For instance, whites tend to test better in certain ways, such as SAT type tests. Is that type of testing relevant to all situations, where other factors might come into play? I mean what if a black boss decides to give all the apllicants tests on sprinting or basketball dunking ability, and then used that to pick his applicants. Chances are a lot of black people would get accepted over whites, and probably the whites might complain too. So the tests have to directly relate.

"Frank Lombard is an associate director at Duke University's Global Health Institute and a homosexual who was charged last week with the molestation of his adopted 5-year-old black son and actively trying to sell him for sex on the internet.
The 40 words above are 40 more than the Main Stream Media has said on this horrible story."

Gotta go online to find out some pretty basic facts about the Duke matter. Seems race and sexuality count for everything is some media stories, and for zero in others, depending on who is made to look bad.

"The US economy will feel a substantial boost from the Obama administration’s emergency spending package over the next few months, says Christina Romer, a senior White House official, who has warned against tightening monetary and fiscal policy before recovery is well established.

Ms Romer, chairman of the US president’s council of econ­omic advisers, told the Financial Times in an interview she was “more optimistic” that the economy was close to stabilisation."

Not that she is biased in anyway. Nor does being Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of California Berkeley reflect on her judgement.

--Did y'all see Ibama's latest press conference? He used California as an example of how we will all benefit from the cap-n-tax.--

What a dolt.
What benefits did he cite?
99.9% of our cap and trade crapola has not even been implemented yet.
IOW, they have managed to utterly screw this state up from Oregon to Mexico BEFORE they drive our energy prices sky high and burden business and consumers with even more onerous regs and taxes.

as the power drunks in Sacramento drive the Prius off the cliff, Ogabe uses them as an example...what a buffoon.

Today's LA Times reported that the GM/Toyota joint venture plant in Fremont, the last automobile plant in California, will probably shut down shortly. Automotive used to be one of the leading employers in the state. One more victory for the Left.

the AP read - "A Duke University official has been arrested and charged with offering his adopted 5-year-old son for sex."

the Washington Post read - "A Duke University official has been charged with offering a 5-year-old boy for sex."

Who chooses to change the news service story? Hiding FACTS from the story.

The depravity that is more and more on display in our country is sickening, and terribly sad.

A quote by Mark Hitchcock - "Any arguments against sin, especially sexual sin, are turned on their head, and the one who speaks out is made to appear narrow, ignorant, intolerant, and unloving. Evil is approved and encouraged while truth is mockingly scorned."

"A quote by Mark Hitchcock - "Any arguments against sin, especially sexual sin, are turned on their head, and the one who speaks out is made to appear narrow, ignorant, intolerant, and unloving. Evil is approved and encouraged while truth is mockingly scorned."

That is the true essence of liberalism,"Do what thou well'st is all of the law". Except being conservative.

Back during our long dance with Judges Walton, Tatel et al, I started noticing that all the really good stuff landed in the footnotes. In fact, it almost seemed like that's where all the really important stuff ended up. Apparently it's judicial custom. From time to time, I actually read the footnotes first.

Clarice:

"I think she can't hide behind the cover of pending case now...."

I am sooooo relieved, because I was seriously worried that the Supremes might remand. And that was before I found out that TeamObama was so desperate for precisely that result that they actually filed an amicus brief recommending it to the Court! So much for taking the politics out of justice as well as science.

Deb:

Gotta love Alito on this one! Usually it's Scalia stirring the pot, but it looks like Alito is no slouch when it comes to spotting opportunities. It would be hard to make his opinion of Obama's judicial philosophy clearer, wouldn't it?

glaster, I think this story is very important because it shows how people can fight back against Chavez/Iranian style vote fraud that is taking over around the world. We might have to support military interventions more, because as we see in Iran, once the evil doers get power, unde the guise of a "vote" it's hard to get rid of them.

Obama gave a troubling statement, but on Breitbart Hillary seemd to dial it back a tad, so that's good.

Don't know whether you checked back or not, but I posted a response to your invitation at the tail end of the Fitness Thread. Loved your comment!

sylvia:

This one is really simple. When your house is burning down with you in it, which guy do want showing up? The one who passed his firefighter's exam, or the one who flunked it? Those are the two sides of this story. We're not talking aptitude tests here.

And by the way, I saw on the news that Sanford's mistress said her email was hacked into and that's how they got the love letters. I think that is another hard left power tactic that we might need to look out for. I don't think that Repubs cheat more than Dems, but someone on the left is doing more opposition research on the matter.

"but someone on the left is doing more opposition research on the matter."

It's called espionage. Doesn't America have a Data Protection Act,or other privacy laws?
Isn't there some Federal offence that will see that some little Democrat fulfils their life ambition to be prison bitch?

DoT, I think it would be stupid to suggest she's stupid when the decision was 5-4, but now that the case is decided I think the panel has broader range to question her on her views on AA..If nothing else--that is, even if it does not stop the nomination--it may remind the country which by a wide majority hates AA.

She apparently neglected to turn over 300 boxes of docs to the committee and they are trying to use that to play for time..It would be nice if she weren't sworn in by Sept when the Ct rehears the Hillary film case (CFR).

Thanks for that graph, Deb. Romer is a fool who giggled her way through the early press conferences, so happy was she to be working for the Won. Clearly she has now adopted his ability to tell absolute lies when the real facts stare them in the eye. That graph pretty much says it all.

That said, it is true Romer had a decent reputation before this appointment and more than a few are surprised that she is willing to sell the koolaid so hard. I think Deb is right that she produced that graph to sell the stimulous bill, and if it was hers, you cannot ignore the impact that was to have occurred by now which did not. So if she is not in fact a fool, she has acted foolishly, and if she is not in fact lying about what she thought back then, she sure seemed to be saying something different then than now. How's that for accuracy?

Wasn't Obama supposed to meet with Uribe today? How's this for insanity? With the US/Colombia Free Trade agreement sitting on his desk unsigned, Obama has the nerve to ask Uribe to risk letting us plant a US base on Colombian soil. At this point we can only thank our otherwise unlucky stars for Uribe's remarkable forbearance.

All you really need to know about Obama is that he and Labor are the Siamese twins of US policy, both domestic and international. At the bottom of every rabbit hole in this Administration, I'm convinced you'll find a union.

After last week I thought it was our policy not to "meddle" in the politics of other countries...

Let's try this one on for size (from 15JUN09):

"Uh, obviously all of us have been watching the, uh, news from Iran Honduras. Uh...and I want to start of by being very clear, that...uh, it...it is up to Iranians Hondurans to make decisions about who Iran's Honduras' leaders will be. That...we respect Iranian Honduran sovereignty, and... want to avoid the United States being the issue, inside of Iran Honduras. Which, sometimes the United States can be a handy, uh...uh...political football, uuuuh...or discussions with the United States."

Seems like that, unless he stands on the side of dictatorship (he said coyly), the policy should be clear: Aparta las manos Yanqui!

Linda Tripp was the cause of me completely disregarding the opinions of many of my lefty so-called friends who couldn't understand why I would be sympathetic to somebody taking on the POTUS and his MSM lackeys but thought that lying whore Erin Brockovitch was the greatest person in the world.

Obama, consistently on the wrong side of history.
Amajdenijad has to go the way of Saddam,we must invade and free the Iranians. Of course that will occur only after obama is out of office. he doesn't have the guts to do the right thing.

mi mi mi mi mi mi mi mi miiiiii....happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you...happy biiiirthday dear Verner...happy birthday to you. Anyone ever watch the Andy Griffith show where Barney wanted to be in the choir? Well, if you did, I sing like Barney! Be glad I typed it. ::grin::

It's not just Romer. Lawrence Summers actually knows the pepper from the fly shit, but he's keeping mum about all this economic insanity. Shame on him.

And so today our president stands shoulder to shoulder with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. How long can this kind of thing go on? Can we really be sure that a majority of Americans want anything different?

I'm confused by the decision. It sounds like all 9 justices said that the appeals court decision was crap, with 4 voting to send it back to the appeals court to fix it, while 5 justices voted to simply overturn the decision.

“One of the reasons the nomenclature is not used is that ‘war’ carries with it a relationship to nation states in conflict with each other and of course terrorism is not necessarily derived from the nation state relationship,” she told the Financial Times. “In some respects ‘war’ is too limiting.”

Ms Napolitano’s comments were the clearest acknowledgement by an Obama official of a widely observed change in language. In March, the White House denied reports that an internal memo had been issued banning the term. But Mr Obama has studiously avoided the phrase, which officials see as legally troublesome and politically counterproductive.

Ms Napolitano, who arrived on Monday night in the UK, said she was hoping to learn from her British counterparts, and others, how to improve public “resiliency” to terrorist attacks. “You have got to minimise risk and respond with resiliency – there are lessons to be learned from other countries and the UK is one of them,” she said.

I quess she never heard of the War on Drugs or the War on Poverty! And:

Ms Napolitano dismissed Mr Cheney’s warnings. “Pivoting from closing Guantánamo to the argument that [its closure] could be the causal agent for an attack on the US is, to be charitable, a stretch,” she said. But she conceded the administration needed to do more to persuade Congress to house Guantánamo detainees on US soil.

Ms Napolitano said she also continued to monitor the threat of domestic terrorism following a DHS report in March warning that the declining economy and the return of military veterans meant that there was an increasing threat of rightwing “lone wolf” terrorist activity.

“The fact of the matter is that this threat is very real and is not solely rightwing or leftwing,” she added.